actually my dogs all have very close bonds with us, its little complicated to explain how our "pack" works, bat basicly I am the alpha of happy, misty, and Ripley, these 3 follow me, and sleep with me, and look at me as alpha. shadow, perky, and blair, are all follow my mom, and sleep with my mom, and otherwise regard her as alpha, now they all listen to me as well as my mom, and there are no conflicts between the 2 groups. now out of the dogs themselves shadow is top dog, and has been since she was 4 years old, they have all chanllaged her leadership at one point in time, and not one of them has come close to taking over shadows alpha postion. what I meant by shadow not uderstanding pack behavoir is that she did not learn how to communicate, she has no idea that rolling over showing belly is submissive behavour, she does not know what the warnings are in doggie language. I know shadow is healthy she is just getting older, there is one more thing that I gotta say for you to understand the situation properly but I gotta go to school right this instant lol